Benchmarking studies are convenient but at the end it is all about personal preferences and personal demands.
I just can tell you my own approach: I had MS Office installed and installed parallel LibO (it was that time LibO 3.4) to test both systems against each other based on my needs and preferences. I found some elements in LibO which I did not like so much but there are also elements in MS Office which I don’t like. However, I suddenly recognized that I use LibO more often than MS Office and switch completely over to LibO saving all files by default in ODF format. I convert only to MS Office formats when a pdf-file cannot be used. Maybe 1% of files which I need to share I share in MS Office format and then in the formats without an x at the end.
Since I have my new PC, I only have LibO installed - no waste of time and money for MS Office. Additionally I have a portable version on a USB-stick for presentations for which I cannot use my own PC.
Additionally I write bug reports and enhancement request and enjoy when they become reality in a newer version.
By the way, did you ever write a bug report to MS and got a response?
Maybe this is an approach for you as well.
--------edit after 1st comment
@cheche - I had a look at the link you provided and looked also a the bug 39179
I opened in LibO 4.1.4.2 on XP/SP3:
- 50 page file (123kB): in 46.9 sec; bug report: 2 min
- 119 page file (312kB): in 147 sec, bug report: 6 min
- 17 page file with 1.5 MB: in 4 sec; the bug reports gives no indication on opening time
Test conditions:
Downloading the file on my desktop
LibO started
File>Open> selected file an hit ENTER
Why is the largest file opening in the shortest time?
Are there different docx versions included? What makes the 17 pages file so big (1.5MB)?
I have no answers.
Does this now mean that LibO 4.1.4.2 is so much faster than the various version of the 3 family?
I don’t know because the CPU type is not reported and there is also no information what other programs are running in the background.
This means one has to consider many parameter in a benchmarking test and if one or the other parameter does not match with your configuration and machine, the test can be completely irrelevant. Therefore I just make a test on my own machine and decide on what I experience.
Maybe this is food for thoughts.